


safe harbor

by joshllyman



Series: sportsfest 2020 fills [13]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, M/M, Mentioned Konoha Akinori, been thinkin bout this au for months glad sportsfest finally gave me an excuse to write it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24815392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joshllyman/pseuds/joshllyman
Summary: Keiji frowns, but he doesn’t push Tetsurou’s hand away. It’s nice to have the company, even if the company is his husband’s pain-in-the-ass best friend. He stares out into the distance until he grows cross-eyed, and only then does he blink. He sits this vigil twice a year, once in early summer and once at the tail end of fall, as he waits for his husband to return from the dangerous life he leads.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji & Kuroo Tetsurou, Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Series: sportsfest 2020 fills [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789072
Comments: 12
Kudos: 56





	safe harbor

**Author's Note:**

> prompt here: [ sportsfest 2020 ](https://sportsfest.dreamwidth.org/27747.html?thread=3127139#cmt3127139)  
> sorry for the heavyhanded title lmao

“He’s late,” Keiji says aloud, sensing Tetsurou’s presence behind him.

“Hard to tell time on the ocean, Keij,” Tetsurou observes. He sits down beside Keiji with a groan. Neither of them are so young as they used to be. “He’ll be here soon.”

“There’s a storm coming. I know you’ve felt it.”

“In my knee, yes. Hell of an injury that’ll tell me the weather, huh?”

“If he doesn’t get in before the storm--”

“Keiji,” Tetsurou sighs, setting a hand on his forearm. “It’ll be fine. Any minute we’ll see him coming across the horizon, okay?”

Keiji frowns, but he doesn’t push Tetsurou’s hand away. It’s nice to have the company, even if the company is his husband’s pain-in-the-ass best friend. He stares out into the distance until he grows cross-eyed, and only then does he blink. He sits this vigil twice a year, once in early summer and once at the tail end of fall, as he waits for his husband to return from the dangerous life he leads. 

“You think he’ll bring those weird fruits back this time?” Tetsurou questions.

Keiji shrugs. “Perhaps, if they were able to raid a boat headed back from the New World.”

“You think he’ll bring back any more freed slaves?”

Keiji spares a small smile. “Of that, I have no doubt.”

Keiji’s out of uniform today, and he’d be surprised if any of the other officers in town were wearing theirs. The local law enforcement turn a helpful blind eye to Koutarou and his crew, considering they’re providing the supplies the war has so cruelly starved out from towns like theirs. 

“Look there,” Tetsurou says, pointing into the distance. Keiji had just spotted it himself when Tetsurou spoke. There is a hazy mass approaching, bearing vaguely the same shape as his husband’s ship. 

“An hour at most before they’re in harbor,” Tetsurou says. 

“You don’t have to stay, if you have other matters to attend to,” Keiji offers.

Tetsurou waves him off. “I don’t have anywhere else I need to be.”

They sit in companionable silence as Koutarou’s ship approaches. As it gets closer, Keiji will categorize every new scratch on the surface, every chunk absent from the hull. For now, he counts his blessings: the ship is not smoking, nor is it sinking. As long as nothing has happened in the three days since the advance boat arrived, he will see his husband disembarking from the ship shortly. He just needs to hold out a little while longer.

When it’s close enough that Keiji can just make out the name on the bow, he stands stiffly. The hill overlooking the shore is his preferred viewpoint for watching the ocean, but it’s a bit of a walk down to the docks. Tetsurou groans again as he stands.

“Let’s go get your man, shall we?” he says, offering Keiji his elbow.

Keiji huffs a dry laugh as he takes it. For all Tetsurou’s supposed chivalry, Keiji knows the elbow isn’t for his own benefit, but because Tetsurou will need the extra balance as they descend the uneven path down the hill. 

“Do you ever miss it?” Keiji asks. “The life of a buccaneer?”

Tetsurou laughs. “Of course I do. It’s exciting, and with Kou at the helm none of us were ever in real danger. And every time we took down a boat with weapons headed for the New World, you’d get this rush, you know? That’s not something you can get on land.”

Keiji peers at him out of the corner of his eye. There’s a wistful look on his face, and he’s sure that Tetsurou’s far away in his head, reliving some glorious battle on the ocean. Keiji had never understood the appeal himself, preferring the feeling of solid land under his feet, but Tetsurou and Koutarou have always spoken of life on the seas as far superior.

“But, uh. Land’s good, too. And it’s not like it was all excitement all the time. There were days on end where there was nothing to do. Koutarou tells the same jokes over and over until Akinori challenges him to a duel, you know.”

“I have little doubt of that,” Keiji responds, and his tone is dry but his heart swells. That’s his husband. 

Many of the villagers are flocking to the docks as the ship approaches, and Tetsurou and Keiji keep to the back of the crowd. They’re tall enough to see over most of the others, anyway. They’re not standing there for more than a minute or two when Keiji hears the sound he’s so desperately missed.

“Ahoy there!” Koutarou shouts, appearing on the port side of the ship. “We’re back!”

There are cheers from the assembled crowd, and if Keiji has to turn and hide tears in his shirtsleeve, only Tetsurou is any the wiser. 

Koutarou is the last one off the ship, as usual. He always makes sure everyone else disembarks and reunites with their families before he does, and while Keiji loves his husband’s kind heart, his own selfish heart wishes Koutarou would just come down here, already. His laughter carries across the crowd as he greets various folks he knows.

But when he locks eyes with Keiji, he breaks into a face-splitting smile.

The crowd parts for them, or if it doesn’t, Keiji doesn’t pay any heed to anyone he might run into on his way to Koutarou’s arms. Koutarou wraps himself around Keiji and holds him tight, and Keiji thinks finally,  _ finally _ , his safe harbor has returned. 

**Author's Note:**

> socials at joshllyman.carrd.co


End file.
